BY 



COPYRIGHT 1914 
BELDING BROS. & CO. 



■■Ill 

THE STORY OF A 
SILK MILL 



BY 

BRUCE CALVERT 

"The Indiana Thoreau" 

Author of 
Rational Education, Science and Health 

Staff Lecturer for New York City Board of Education 



PUBLISHED BY 



BELDING BROTHERS & CO. 

NEW YORK CHICAGO ST. LOUIS 

PHILADELPHIA BOSTON CINCINNATI 

ST. PAUL BALTIMORE SAN FRANCISCO 



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PUBLISHER'S NOTICE 

When the foregoing article by Bruce Calvert, the lec- 
turer and authority on sociology, was shown us, it led us to 
believe that the general public might be interested in the 
policies and practices of Belding Bros. & Co. Particularly 
at this time when the Congress of the United States is con- 
templating the enactment of a Pure Fabrics Law which will 
protect the public against adulterated silks, it is fortunate that 
we are able to acquaint the public with the inside workings of 
our organization in producing Pure Dye Silk Fabrics, Em- 
broidery Silks and Sewing Silks. 

The discriminating woman who buys Belding Silks for 
their high qualities will take added pleasure in those beautiful 
and artistic creations, knowing something of the environment 
under which thousands of healthy, well-paid Belding mill 
girls supply the world's need of silk. 

BELDING BROS. & CO. 



/ 

CIA380288 



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The Story of a Silk Mill 




E-L-D-I-N-G ! B-E-L-D-I-N-G ! This way out." 

Absorbed in a deeply interesting pamphlet on silk culture I 

had not noticed that we were approaching a station. 

Hurriedly gathering up my things I stepped from the train 

and right there before my very eyes stood a massive gray 

stone building some six hundred feet long, seventy or more 

wide, four stories high, one of the great silk mills of Belding Brothers 

& Company from which the pretty little town in western Michigan takes 

its name. 

It seemed strange to me that one of the largest silk manufacturing 
centers of the world should be located away out here in the Mid- West, 
silk being something I have always associated with the East. 

But here I was, and here were the mills. Here I could study at first 
hand the wonderful transformation of spidery filaments spun by busy 
silk worms of far away China or Japan into spools and skeins and fabrics 
of shimmery silk — exquisite creations of hand and loom binding women 
folk of all the world in a mystic sisterhood of beauty worshippers. 

Emerson says every great institution is the lengthened shadow of 
a man. The Belding institution is surely the spiritual projection of four 
great men each preeminent in his own sphere. And that spirit of the 
founders permeates every root and fibre of the whole organization today. 

The story of the four Belding boys reads like a page out of the 
Arabian Nights. No more thrilling romance of business has ever been 
enacted in all the stirring commercial history of this our marvellous 
country. 

Born on a rocky New England farm, inured to hardship and 
struggle these lads seemed to take from the soil some of that native 
granite of determination that in after life carried them through dif- 
ficulties ordinary men would have succumbed to. 



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As a relief from the drudgery of wresting a living from stony stub- 
born fields they took to peddling from house to house in their own and 
the neighboring villages. Among other things they sold in this way was 
silk in skeins. Perhaps in this apparent accident of fate lies a key to the 
real characters of those boys, for after all there are no such things as 




One of the Three Belding Bros. & Co. Mills in Belding, Mich. 



accidents in this well ordered world. Picture how on that bleak and 
barren hillside farm amid the somewhat narrow life of the early forties 
in Puritan Massachusetts the mere handling of those shining skeins of 
beautiful fluffy silks ministered to an esthetic sense and love of beauty that 
must have lain deeply innate within them. 



0B III 



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The father heard the call of the west and removed with his family to 
Patterson's Mills, now Belding, Michigan. Here in 1860 the sons began 
their actual career as silk dealers securing on credit a consignment of 
silks from Boston amounting to $145.60. Their total cash capital at that 
time was just $3.15. On this they began business in earnest selling the 
silks from packs on their backs as they had done in the old home town of 
Ashfield, Mass. 

From that humble beginning the young firm grew and prospered, the 





D.W. Belding M. M. Belding 



boys became men, and the little business expanded until today, in 1914, 
they operate perhaps the largest silk industry in America, one of the larg- 
est in the world, with a capital of six million dollars, the finest equipped 
silk mills in existence employing steadily over four thousand girls. 

The four Belding brothers were in many ways a remarkable quartette. 

One quality all shared in common. That was a stern rock-ribbed 
honesty and firmness unyielding as the boulders of the old home farm. 



5 



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They had that idealism of the highest type which was to give of themselves 
and exact of others nothing less than their very best. They never sacri- 
ficed this principle a moment for the sake of present profit. 

When these boys became silk manufacturers they wanted to produce 
the best silk in the world. Nothing else would satisfy them. And this 
policy has been adhered to throughout all their more than fifty years of 
business. Today from the keen blue-eyed Superintendent, a grizzled 
veteran grown gray in the service of the company down to the newest little 
apple-cheeked country lass among the winders or spoolers, is the constant 
appeal — "Your best, nothing else." 




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A. N. Beldim; 



H. H. Belding 



SILK CULTURE 

Now let us take a look at the mills themselves and especially at the 
hundreds of girls over there in that busy hive as that is really what we are 
here for. But first just a word about Her Majesty The Silk Worm. 

The man who wrote about "poor humble worms of the dust" was 
surely unacquainted Avith the silk worm. There is nothing humble or poor 
about this royal creature. She is the aristocrat of the animal world. No 



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other member of the worm family has had such care bestowed upon her. 
Queens and Kings even have been nurses and care-takers for her. She 
is fed and watched more carefully than millions of children. Her culture 
originated in China more than four thousand years ago, under the direc- 
tion of the Empress Se-ling-she. So well did the Chinese guard their 
secret that it was two thousand years before other nations discovered it. 



PHOTOGRAPHED 

FROM NATURE 
BELDSNG BROS, & CO. 




Silk Worms 

The work of the silk worm surpasses even that of the bee in intelli- 
gence and value to the race. We might get along without honey, but a 
world without silk — impossible ! We must have silk, and so far no 
substitute has ever been found for the bombycine moth (silk worm) who 
fashions those filmy threads light as air out of the mulberry leaf. 



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llilllllll! 



Bfilllllllll!!li!!lllllll!lll!l!!llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllillllllll IS 

Man with all his genius and all his science has never been able to 
make a single strand of silk. The silk worm will weave over five hun- 
dred yards of thread into its cocoon which is its shroud as well, from 
which it comes forth resurrected as a moth. These threads or filaments 
as they are called are so fine that it takes 350 of them combined to make 
one thread of the ordinary spool silk letter "A" size. 

THE MILLS AND THEIR PRODUCTS 

The cocoons such as are not needed for breeding purposes are baked 
to destroy the chrysalis and the threads are then unwound and reeled, 




Weaving Belding's Pure Dye Silk Fabrics 

or re-wound onto large wheels. This is a very delicate and tedious 
operation and must be done by careful hands. From the reels the silk 
filaments are bunched into skeins or hanks. This is the raw silk of com- 
merce and in this form from China, Japan and Italy it comes into the 
Belding mills which daily consume the enormous quantity of three 
thousand pounds or over, about one million pounds annually. 

The raw silk as it reaches the mills in bales of about 303 pounds 



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each is first re-sorted into three or more sizes. This is done by hand. 
The girl who does this at one of the mills I inspected is so expert that she 
grades it almost wholly by the sense of touch. In case of doubt a scale 
is at hand for weighing. 

The sorted silk is taken to the dye room where it is washed and 
rubbed and cleaned by hand. It is then ready for the first purely me- 
chanical process, winding onto bobbins which is done by machinery. From 
now on, all except dyeing, the various steps of manufacture into thread, 
fabrics and embroidery silks, are accomplished by machines with almost 
human intelligence. So wonderfully constructed are these machines and 
so rapid and bewildering the processes to an outsider that any attempt to 
understand or describe them would be impossible save by extended tech- 
nical study. The machines are well nigh automatic, but not quite, and it 
is in watching them to see that they do their work right, to look out for 
broken threads, empty shuttles and such things that the thousands of girls 
are needed. 

It is worthy of note that these marvelous machines are the product of 
American genius and American labor. 

In every stage of the work from reeling raw silk to weaving the 
lovely silk fabrics, the constant aim in every Belding mill is to keep the 
work up to the very highest standard of perfection. No imperfect 
products are ever accepted either from machines or workers. Every 
article that goes out from these wonderful factories marked with the final 
stamp of approval is as nearly perfect as mechanical accuracy, human 
ingenuity, human skill and honesty of purpose can make it. 

Before going on to talk of the human problem here involved I must 
however speak of one other process in the mills which presents the 
greatest difficulties. 

This is in the dyeing process. Mixing the colors and dipping the silks 
to get just the right shade is a very delicate operation requiring the 
skilled hand and eye of the expert dyer. The color is mixed in large vats 
of hot water and the skeins are dipped or "worked" in this dye until the 
desired shade has been attained. There is no guide but the keen eyes of 
the dyer. And when it is remembered that in spool silks alone there are 
some five or six hundred shades it becomes a matter of wonder that such 
grading can be done at all. 



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It is here in the dyeing process that the dishonest silk maker commits 
most of his frauds against the public. By soaking the silk in various 
metallic oxides, especially iron for black and tin for colors, he can greatly 
increase the original weight of the silks also obtaining a very high artificial 




Stretching and Reeling Room, Belding Mill No. 1 

lustre. Silks are in this way increased to as much as four times their 
original weight. Bear in mind that silk costs about four dollars a pound, 
while tin costs but forty cents ! 

"Weighting" or "dynamiting" of silks as it is called, not only adds a 
false apparent weight and value to the goods but greatly weakens and 
injures the silk fibre. "Tin silk" will rot and fall to pieces very soon 
after it is made up. Weighting silk would not be a crime in itself, for 
people have a right to buy "tin silk," if they want it. But the goods are 
not labeled "weighted," being sold to the unsuspecting as pure silk. Here 



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IS 



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is where the wrong comes in. The public is not only defrauded in values 
paid for but the very name and reputation of silk itself is discredited. 

Many ladies have wondered why so much of the silk bought in the 
last two years proved so unsatisfactory, and some have concluded that 
silks were getting poorer and cheaper in quality. They may be reassured. 




The Belrockton Club House for Belding Silk Mill Girls 

Good silks are just as good as ever and better. It is only the imitations 
that go to pieces. 

There is unfortunately no law on our statute books against the 
adulteration of silk and selling it as pure. We have pure food laws, and 
a pure gold law. What we need next is a pure silk law. And we shall 
soon have it. A bill is now before Congress largely through the efforts 
of Belding Brothers & Co. making it unlawful to sell as pure the shoddy 
silks loaded with metals. 



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Meanwhile until such time as the laws for the protection of the 
people make it obligatory for makers of impure fabrics to label their 
products so that none may be deceived, Belding Bros. & Co., who make 
only pure dye silks, are taking every precaution to render substitution of 
cheap, impure goods for Belding's pure dye genuine silk impossible. 

In going through the silk fabrics mill, I noticed that on every few 
inches of every yard of silk the name Belding's with the quality number 
woven into the selvedge. I asked the superintendent why this was 
done, and he said the name was woven into the fabric to protect the public 
against adulterated silks and to make easy the identification of Belding's 
Pure Dye Guaranteed Silk Fabrics. The quality number distinguishes 
the style of fabric. 

I was further informed that manufacturers of ready-to-wear gar- 
ments have experienced difficulty in purchasing satisfactory silks, so that 
most of them are now using Belding's Pure Dye Guaranteed Lining Silks 
and attaching to the garment, Belding's Bell-Shape Tag which guarantees 
to the purchaser a new lining free if lining proves unsatisfactory. 

THE SILK MILL GIRL 

We now come to the girl herself upon whose slender shoulders the 
silk industry so largely rests. She is after all the most interesting as well 
as the most important thing in the whole vast enterprise. Why? Well, 
first, because she is a human being. And second, because she is a girl, 
and the girl becomes a woman, and woman is the mother of the race. 

We are living in the most wonderful age the world has ever known. 
A time of great changes and strange awakenings. We are developing 
a new social conscience. For the first time in history society is becoming 
generally concerned about the workers as well as the products of their 
hands. 

We are beginning to realize that the finest fruit of our civilization 
is the men and women it produces. That people, human beings, not 
goods, are the really big things in this world. That business and politics 
and education and art and literature and all else — silk mills included — 
exist for men ! 



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The old idea was that man was secondary to all these various things. 
That is to say, we placed the achievements of men above man himself. 
We exalted the mechanics of living above life itself. That old order is 
gone forever. 

In the last few years a new factor has crept into business — the human 
factor. We are not satisfied with knowing that the product of industry 




Belding Silk Mill Girls in Dining Room in the Belrockton 

is honest, clean and pure as it is represented, but we want to know also 
about the human factors as well as the materials that enter into its com- 
position. 

We now hear on every side that all the things which make up the 
business of life must minister to life itself in the highest sense, to the 
development of men and women, to human character, happiness and well 
being of all concerned. 



iiiiiiiiuiiiiiiin 

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mm 



Society, which is you and I, cannot afford to ignore conditions 
under which workers labor. And most of all can we not ignore the 
conditions under which our girls labor, for they are the ones upon whom 
of all others the future of the race. depends. 

Beautiful and fascinating as are the lovely silks and satins made in 
these wonderful mills here at Belding, Mich., and much as they add to 
the joy and comforts of life, yet they all, everything, even the mills 
themselves with their huge capital and equipment sink into insignificance 
beside the service that the humblest in all these vast work rooms wil\ 
perform for society when in exercising her sacred and God given function 
of motherhood she will bring into the world a well-born child ! 

That's why you and I and all right-minded people are interested in 
the working girl. The new science of Eugenics has shown us that the 
child will always take the status of its mother. The life stream cannot 
rise higher than its source. If we want fine people we must have fine 
mothers. So the new social conscience which is only enlightened self- 
interest will more and more insist upon the best factory regulations where 
girls and women are employed. 

The time is coming, almost here now in fact when we shall refuse 
to accept any product of human hands where oppression of the workers, 
or unclean and unsanitary conditions prevail. More and more the 
commercial value of all articles will include the treatment of the work- 
people who produced it. And only that concern which can show a clean 
bill of health, as it were, will win. All others will be condemned by public 
opinion and will be forced out of business as a menace to society. 

Wise business men already see this tendency of the times and are 
making every effort to adjust themselves to it. It is today worth actual 
money to a manufacturer to know that the enjoyment of any beautiful 
piece of work is much enhanced by the knowledge that it has been 
produced under humane and proper conditions of labor. 

With these facts in mind it was with real interest that I set out to 
inspect the Belding Mills. 

"I have come to look over your plant and see what you are doing 
here, or not doing, as the case may be, in the treatment of your employees," 
I said to Mr. F. W. Howard, Superintendent of the mills, when I entered 
the mill. 



14 



BB lilltll 

"All right," he replied, "you are welcome to go anywhere you 
please, and ask any questions of foremen or employees you see fit." 

Calling up the foremen in the various mills he told them I would 
be around inspecting their mills and instructed them to let me see all 
there was to see, to answer all my questions and that if I should forget 
to ask about any matter I ought to know about, to remind me of it. He 
also gave the same instructions to the Directress at each of the Club 
House Homes where many of the Belding mill girls live. 

"If you see anything you don't like, let me know, and if you can 
show us what we can do that we are not doing to improve things here 
or make life pleasanter for our girls, you're just the man we're looking 
for," he added as I started on my rounds. 

There are four large mills in this western branch of the Belding 
Brothers' business, employing from eight hundred to a thousand girls — 
the thread mill, two fabric mills and the silk embroidery mill. They are 
located upon what was the old Belding homestead. The buildings are 
not crowded together as in the ordinary factory district, but are separated 
by several acres of breathing space affording abundance of light and air 
on all sides. Belding is but a small country village. The mills were here 
first, occupying the most desirable sites and the little town obligingly grew 
up around them. 

It was more a matter of sentiment than any other consideration I 
might imagine that led those hard headed brothers — little suspected of 
any such soft qualities as sentiment, by those they met in the warfare 
of business — to establish their silk mills away out here in the west, thirty 
years ago at a time when it was thought that no manufacturing business 
could be done outside of New England. It was an act of courage and 
commercial daring thoroughly characteristic of the Belding boys. But 
this was where they had actually begun their career as silk merchants, 
here the old father and mother lived. What they undertook they always 
carried through, and so the adventure was a success. 

Belding is quite unlike the typical factory town. It's just a charming 
little country villa set down in a paradise of rolling hills and timbered 
streams, the loveliest part of the state of Michigan. There are no slum 
problems, no hovels, no back streets, no dirt, poverty or crime. Every- 
thing is sweet and clean, with all the advantages of the city, good water 



lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilil 

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in abundance, gas, electric lights and power. You see only good homes, 
well kept lawns, garden spots, flowers and fruit everywhere. 

Broad, well kept shady streets invite you. Fine schools and churches, 
flourishing banks and up-to-date newspapers offer everything to make 




Belding Silk Mill Girls Canoeing on the River at Belding, Mich., 
in Front of Public Park 



life easy and comfortable. The Flatt River, a picturesque little stream, 
divides the town and affords the young people plenty of healthful sport 
and outdoor recreation — skating in winter, boating, bathing and fishing 
in the summer. 






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A pretty little town park of twelve acres of well wooded hill land 
bordering the river provides ample public pleasure grounds if such things 
were needed. In truth though, the park is scarcely needed yet, you have 
but to walk straight out any street half a mile and you are in the midst 
of the great open country. But as the town grows that park will become 
priceless, a monument to the public spirit of the Belding boys in donating 
the land and the wisdom of the people in accepting it. 

As I have said the mills are well lighted. The work rooms are wide 
and airy with lofty ceilings. As you walk through the long halls or 
shops you have the feeling of spaciousness. There is nothing cramped 
or crowded about the place anywhere. The Sturtevant steam heating 
system also ventilates the work rooms bringing in a plentiful supply of 
fresh, pure outdoor heated air at all times. 

Electricity lights all the mills. One, the latest built, is supplied 
throughout with electrically driven machinery. All the others will doubt- 
less be so equipped in due time. 

The general status of wage earners in the Belding mills is far above 
that of the average factory community. The mills have been operated 
for nearly thirty years and in all that time there has never been a strike 
or labor trouble of any kind. The situation at Belding is unique, and 
must be realized in order to understand the high artistic product of the 
Belding mills. The girls come in from the country round about, many 
of them farm girls, also from the neighboring small towns and country 
districts. They come from good homes and they represent the very 
highest class of intelligent labor. They are quick, bright, healthy, am- 
bitious, and they take an honest joy and pride in the beautiful fabrics that 
come from their hands. 

No system of slave driving is ever necessary here. Fines and 
punishments are totally unknown. No time clocks even in the Belding 
mills. I was struck by this fact and said to the Superintendent : — 

"Where are your time clocks ?" 

"Haven't got any," was his reply. Mr. Howard is a man of few 
words. 

"Why not?" 

"Don't need 'em." 

"How's that?" said I in wonder. 



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fflE Mil iliillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllM fflffi 

"They get here, that's all. You see this is a quiet, peaceful, town, 
so the girls go to bed at a reasonable hour, they get a good night's rest 
and are up in the morning with clear heads and steady hands." 

Another thing, there are no social bars up against the mill girl in 
Belding. No class lines are drawn. The silk mill girl is just as good, 
just as much of a lady as the bank president's daughter or any other 
young lady in the village. I think perhaps this is the true reason for 




Belding Bros. & Co. Employees Playing Tennis on Grounds for Their Exclusive Use 

the wonderful skill, efficiency and faithfulness of the Belding girls which 
have made these silk mills the envy and the wonder of all other silk 
manufacturers. 

The girl feels herself just as good as anybody else, which she is, 
and the result naturally follows that having a high opinion of herself 
she brings a high devotion and confidence to her work which enables 
her to turn out the most artistic and beautiful silk products in the world. 

As to wages, while these may not be high measured by city standards, 
they are fair and steady. It must be remembered that the cost of living 



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18 



S S IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1M EBffi 

here is a very different proposition from what it is under congested city 
conditions. The Beldings themselves have taken care of the living prob- 
lem for their girls in the most practical and far-sighted manner by pro- 
viding at the Company's expense several well equipped, beautiful and 
commodious Club Houses where the girls may live at or a little below 
the actual cost of the service. Two of these handsome Club Buildings, 
The Belrockton, and The Ashfield are here shown with a group of girls 
playing tennis, a favorite sport with them, on the Belrockton courts. 

In these Clubs the girls have every comfort and convenience of the 
ordinary good hotel, much superior really to the dormitory service in 
high class colleges. Cozy, comfortable rooms, hot and cold water, plenty 
of bath rooms, lavatories with latest sanitary appliances, laundry, play 
grounds, reception and reading rooms, music rooms, sewing rooms sup- 
plied with machines and cutting boards, and three good meals a day, all 
for $2.50 a week! 

This is lower than the cost of board I have seen anywhere for 
decent accommodations. Lower even than at Valparaiso, Ind., where 
they claim to have reduced the cost of living by scientific methods to the 
lowest possible figure. The, price there for rooms and board runs as 
high I believe as $3.00 a week. 

Competent lady managers look after the welfare of the hundreds of 
girls housed in the Club Buildings. Girls are perfectly free to spend 
their leisure hours as they wish subject only to the reasonable regulation 
as to hours for sleep and rest that any prudent mother would require. 

While the Company Club Houses are open to every girl employee in 
the mills, the girls are not obliged to live there unless they wish. Hundreds 
do indeed live in their own homes, and some board with friends or rela- 
tives in the village. But the fact that the Clubs are there is assurance 
that no girl need be without refined home influences and the best care 
at lowest cost. 

The wages of the mill girls probably average a little higher than the 
wages of girls engaged at other work in the town. Many school teachers 
I know give up teaching and go into the mills feeling that they will earn 
more if adapted to the work than teaching will pay. I don't know whether 
this speaks more to the credit of the Belding Brothers' pay roll or to 
the discredit of the great state of Michigan for niggardliness in the treat- 
ment of its teachers, but the facts are as I have stated. 



19 



liiiriii!!!!' 



It must be remembered too that there are no car fare expenses to be 
reckoned with in Belding. I doubt if any girl lives further away than an 
easy fifteen minutes walk from her mill. The hours, fifty-four a week, 
are fixed by the Michigan labor law, the mills closing down at eleven 




The Ashfield Club House for Belding Silk Mill Girls 



o'clock every Saturday forenoon. The long half holiday afternoons are 
much appreciated. Large numbers of girls attend high school and work 
in the mills before and after school hours earning good wages in that 
way. 

If the wage standard of which I shall presently speak may seem 
rather moderate than high, let it be said that no girl, not even the beginner 
who must be taught everything, is ever paid less than a living wage. 
Although it takes three or four months for a new girl to become a source 
of profit to the company, she is paid $5.00 a week from the first day. 
In two weeks she is advanced to $5.50. This with living accommodations 
equal to the best of private homes at $2.50 a week renders the girl's 
problem a comparatively easy one. Compare this with the wretched 






condition of thousands of girls in the big Department stores in the big 
cities working for $4.00 and $5.00 a week when the standard of a decent 
living wage in the city is about $8.00 a week according to the state's 
investigators ! 

Work in the Belding mills requires a superior class of labor. The 
girl must first of all have perfect eyesight, must be neat, cleanly, healthy, 
and of course of the best moral character. After being given a fair trial 
if she seems physically or temperamentally unfitted for work, she is ad- 
vised to seek other employment. If she shows capability she is put on 
piece work just as soon as she acquires the necessary proficiency to earn 
more than her learner's wage. On the same basis then as all others in her 
department she may now earn whatever her skill entitles her to. 

Some of the girls are so expert that they earn from $14.00 to $16.00 
a week. But the average I should say all through the mills is at least $8.00 
a week if not more. 

Accidents in the mills are exceedingly rare. All machinery is so 
protected that it is next to impossible for an operator to injure herself 
short of deliberate intent. So while they have an emergency room fitted 
up for accidents it is more to comply with the law than from any need 
of it. 

The mills are supplied with an abundance of the finest artesian water 
from the town's plant. And one thing I noticed everywhere, a practice 
other towns might well emulate, was the sanitary drinking fountains of 
pure running water in all public places. 

General health standards in the town are high. I could not find in 
talking to local physicians that the mill people suffer from any special 
diseases different from the ordinary illnesses in other towns of the 
country. Tuberculosis, generally considered the mill disease is scarcely 
known here. The work rooms are kept clean by constant care and chairs 
with backs are provided for each operator who stands at her work so that 
when the machines require no attention she may sit comfortably at rest. 

The physician employed by the company to look after the health of 
the girls has an easy time of it, so little call is there for his services. A 
death has never occurred in any of the Club Houses, and but few cases 
of serious illness. 

Almost any girl in the Belding mills can save money if she wants to. 



21 



Ill!lll!ll!lillll!i!llllll 



As a matter of fact many do. Hundreds of them have accounts in the 
savings banks of which the little town has three. I was talking to one 
of the cashiers and he said that while he could not give names of girls 
who had savings accounts, that large numbers of them were saving 
money. Just then three or four girls came in with their pass books to 
make deposits. When they had gone I asked if they were mill girls. 




A Bedroom in the Belrockton Club House 

"Yes," was the reply, "they are all mill girls and one of those very 
girls has a thousand dollars to her credit in this bank, that she has saved 
out of her wages." 

I asked no more questions. The three banks carry savings deposits of 
about $250,000.00. Some of the girls have worked in the mills from ten 
to twenty-four years. I talked with many of these girls and visited some 
in their homes. 



Illililllllillillil!i!llli;ill!lllllllllllllll!l!!!l!i;i^ 



lilllllllllllllllllllilllll 



"Do you consider the Belding Silk Mills a good place for a girl to 
work?" I inquired of one young lady. 

"Yes, I do," she answered. "For a girl who has to or wants to make 
her own way and is willing to do the right thing, I don't know of anything 
better in this part of the country. The work is clean, it is not heavy, and 
handling beautiful silks is really very interesting. Besides the home life 
here is very pleasant." 

"Do you like the work?" I asked. 

"Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't be here now. It's fifteen years since 
I went into the silk mill." 

"Have you ever thought of looking for other employment?" I 
pursued. 

"No, I have not. I've been here so long now it's second nature for 
me to run a loom." 

"And so far as the work itself is concerned and the conditions of 
labor and living I don't see how it could be much better. The home life 
here in the Club is very pleasant" — (I was talking to her in the pretty 
parlors of the Ashfield Club). 

Another girl with twenty years of service in the mills to her credit 
I questioned in her own home. 

"Are the girls in the mills satisfied with the work and the treatment 
by the Company?" 

"So far as I know they find no fault with the Company or their 
treatment on the whole. I believe they are trying to do the best they 
can. I've been in the mills for a long time, over twenty years, in fact 
ever since I began to make my own way. I have looked around from 
time to time but have never found anything that seemed better to me. I 
did expect to teach school and prepared for it, but I soon found that I 
would probably never earn as much in teaching as I now make in the 
mills. Besides in the mill we have steady work and full time." 

In reply to my question as to what she thought of the Club Houses, 
the girl said: 

"I think they are the finest thing the Company has ever done, for the 
girls. I lived for quite a while myself at the Belrockton. But my parents 
are getting old and it is better now for me to be at home with them." 



BBBB l!ll!IIII!l!!hllllllllM 

2:5 



lilllllll!|Hliilllll 




No. 1 — 24 years 
No. 2 — 10 years 
No. 3 — 11 years 
No. 4 — 21 years 
No. 5 — 9 years 



Group of Belding Bros. & Co., Mill Employees and Length of Time with Firm 



24 



Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiii!iii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiy 



I was informed by Mr. Howard, Superintendent of the mills, that 
the directors of the company have appropriated a large sum of money 
to be devoted to the welfare of their employes in the shape of a large, 
attractive casino building which will afford not only amusement to the 
mill girls and town folks, but will also afford them an opportunity of 
studying music, art, literature, etc. In fact give Belding employes and 
residents of Belding, Michigan, an opportunity to improve their leisure 
hours in the most beneficial manner. 

The company is now conducting a far-reaching investigation as to 
just the plans which will be followed in best carrying out the ideas 
mentioned by Mr. Howard. 

Has humanity any other business before it than to bring more life 
to all silk mill girls and all who carry on the beautiful work of the world ? 

Many Belding employees own their own homes. Years ago the 
Company bought desirable lots and built good homes for their people, 
renting them at very low rates or selling them outright on long time and 
easy terms to encourage permanency among the work people. Large 
numbers, men with families, did take advantage of this liberal offer and 
now nearly all own their homes. 

Streets are wide. Houses and grounds are neat and well kept. You 
might easily imagine yourself in a town of retired business men rather 
than a mill town. The Company offers three prizes every year for the 
best kept grounds and homes. These prizes are hotly contested for and 
proud and happy are the winners. 

I talked with the owner of that cozy little cottage on the left in the 
picture on page 26, Mr. W. H. Hein, who works in the winding room 
of mill number two. 

"I'm satisfied here in Belding," said he as we sat on his front porch 
that lovely May morning, "I have tried it most everywhere else with 
many ups and downs but this is the best I've ever found." 

He bought this pretty little cottage from Belding Bros. & Co. on 
easy terms and now has it all paid for. He has every comfort and con- 
venience. Large lot, plenty of sun and air, fine garden spot, city water, 
gas and electric light. His son and daughter both work in the mills. 
Younger children are in the schools getting a good education. I talked 
with many men who have been in the mills for twenty and some for 
thirty years. 



25 



Illiillllilillllliiililiilllllililiililliii::' :/:i!lillli!lii!ii!l!li!(iiill!!lil!!I!l!!!iiiiijii I 



I notice it is the policy of the Beldings to keep their people and to 
get their foremen, managers and superintendents largely from the ranks 
of their own employees. 

Although many men are employed about the mills for heavy work 
that girls can not do, I have not spoken of them particularly for the 




Howard Street, Belding, Mich. Homes Owned by Belding Bros. & Co. Employees 



reason that they are far outnumbered by the girls, and because as I said 
in the beginning, the girl herself as the conserver of human life, the 
potential mother, is society's greatest concern. Then, too, if we make 
working conditions right for women and girls, they will be right for men 
and boys as well. 

The relations between the Company and its employees at Belding are 
unique and well worth study. There is a noticeable absence of that 
officious paternalism with which some corporations harrass their work 



26 



i;i!-:': ',',!..;;:.■'., ''..i:-.^!:!,;: ::.':,. ; :. . 



people under the guise of so-called "welfare organizations." I commented 
upon this to which Mr. Howard replied in explanation : 

"We're free American citizens here. Our feeling for personal 
liberty is strong. These girls would resent our meddling in their affairs 
outside of their work in the mills. We have no desire to pry into their 
personal matters or how they spend their leisure hours. 

"We make living conditions just as good as we know how. We 
provide the facilities for good work. We give them good homes, good 
food, and we place in their reach all the intellectual and social pleasures 
our town affords, but we don't believe in pushing them into it. We feel 
that what they want, they will seek. We don't want slaves in our mills 
but intelligent, independent, free workers." 

It must be said that this matter of the intelligent treatment of em- 
ployees is no new thing at Belding. It has always been so. The Belding 
boys didn't know anything else. The luxurious Club Homes were built 
years ago before the much talked of "welfare work" was ever heard of. 
None of this work was ever done from any charitable motives on the 
part of the Belding brothers. They would be the first to scorn such an 
imputation. They simply did what was natural for them to do, and of 
course they had imagination enough to see that happy, well cared for, well 
contented work people will always do the best work. The mill girl is 
no different in this respect from the mill owner. 

Those farmer boys never dreamed they were doing anything remark- 
able in providing the best for their people. They loved their business 
and they wanted all their workers to take the same pride and joy in the 
silk mills. They simply tried to treat their help as they themselves would 
like to be treated were they in the mills as workers. 

Nothing that has been done by the Beldings has ever been paraded. 
And no one could be more astonished today than the Belding people to 
find that their system of treating employees is being talked about and 
studied by investigators in factory management as an almost ideal 
industrial organization. 

I have investigated the working conditions in many industrial plants 
and the living conditions of the workers in many industrial towns and 
cities. I believe the conditions as a whole are better in Belding, Michigan, 
than any place I ever visited. 

(Signed) BRUCE CALVERT. 



IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!.IIIIIIIIII!IIIIIIIIIIM 

27 



ill Illlllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllll 




Belding Bros. & Co. Employees in Parlors of Belrockton Club House 



llll::i!iili!!lllilll!ill!i!illlillllH 



Belding's Pure Dye Silk Fabrics are guaranteed to give satisfactory 
wear, will not rip, split or tear. 

Mr. Calvert, on the preceding pages, tells something of the adultera- 
tion of silk fabrics. Adulteration is easy, but it is difficult to detect. 
Your protection against adulterated silks is to insist that the name 
Belding's be woven_ into the selvedge because that means that the 
silk is pure dye and is guaranteed to give satisfactory wear. 

Belding's Tearless Petticoat Silk is a new fabric particularly 
designed for petticoats. We guarantee that it will not rip, split or 
tear. 

BELDING'S 
GUARANTEED LINING SILKS 

Suitable for lining Cloaks, Suits, Jackets, etc. Belding's Petticoat 
and Lining Silks are carried by all first class dry goods stores. Made 
full yard wide in all the season's latest shades. 

RETAIL PRICES 

Satins $1.00 per yard 

All silk medium weight. . 1.25 per yard 
Heavy weight 1.50 per yard 

You can have the same Belding 

Pure Dye Silks in ready-made 

garments. To be sure of it 



Insist on Getting this Belding 

Bell-Shape Tag With Your 

Ready-to- Wear Cloaks, 

Suits, Jackets, etc. 




This tag is an absolute guarantee that the garment to which 
it is attached is lined with Belding's Guaranteed Lining Silk and 
that the lining will give satisfactory wear or a new lining free. Ask 
your dry goods dealer. 

Belding's Silk Fabrics, for Linings, Skirts, Petticoats, Dresses, 
Trimmings, etc., are made in all weights and colors. Belding's Spool 
Silk is strong, elastic, full measure, and uniform in size. Belding's 
Embroidery Silks are in all shades desired, the highest quality of soft, 
pure silk yarns. All Belding products are guaranteed pure dye and 
imperishable colors. 

Just one little word "Belding's," before buying will insure you 
against all risk. It will give you the highest value possible in silk 
products and what is finer still for all true women, it will give you 
the satisfaction of knowing that no woman or girl has been abused 
or oppressed in the making of the silken beauty that ministers so 
much to your comfort and happiness. 

BELDING BROTHERS & CO. 

NEW YORK CHICAGO ST. LOUIS 

PHILADELPHIA BOSTON CINCINNATI 

ST. PAUL BALTIMORE SAN FRANCISCO 

Also Manufacturers of Belding's Sewing Silks'and Belding's Embroidery Silks 



YOUR GUIDE 

FOR BUYING 

BELDING'S PURE DYE 
SILK FABRICS 



FOR DRESSES 



Quality 671, medium weight, all silk. 
Quality 727, all silk taffeta. 
Quality 164, light weight, satin. 
Quality 688, light weight, all silk. 




FOR PETTICOATS 

Quality 671, medium weight, all silk. 
Quality 727, all silk taffeta. 
Quality 164, light weight, satin. 
Quality 688, light weight, all silk. 




"It won't tear" 

It's Belding's Tearless 
Petticoat Silk. 



FOR LININGS 

Quality 122, medium weight, satin. 
Quality 690, heavy weight, satin. 
Quality 671, medium weight, all silk. 

FOR TRIMMINGS 

Quality 671, medium weight, all silk. 
Quality 727, all silk taffeta. 
Quality 164, light weight, satin. 
Quality 688, light weight, all silk. 

LOOK FOR QUALITY NUMBER 
AND NAME 

BELDING'S 

IN THE SELVEDGE 



.■■-■-.■■,■: > ni^i'-tx':; - ■ ■ ■ o Btimm" & 



